A Memoir About The Impact Of A Teacher:

Student

Professor

Class

Date

Impact of teacher

Life teaches us significant life-long lessons through many sources; parents, siblings, peers, relatives, teachers and colleagues. However, no one could do this the way Mr. Briggs impacted my life. I still remember the lesson that I learned years ago that was not any law of motion, theory of evolution or any literature stuff; it was the lesson of life. The lesson to live and let others live tranquilly. I would disclose this event in brief words then I would explain what I actually learned and how did it help me reshape my attitude towards others.

It was just like an ordinary day at school. I was in grade 7 at that time. Our ethics teacher Mr. Watson Briggs entered the class and asked the name of one of my classmates. “Clark” he replied. Teacher then asked him to leave the class immediately. He made many clarifications saying “I didn’t do anything wrong, please let me stay in, Sir” but it was all futile. After making many attempts he left the class eventually; we all saw him leaving with pathetic grins but could not do anything in front of an authoritative teacher. Mr. Briggs then started delivering his first lesson asking “what do you know about law?” someone said, “laws are conventions developed for controlling one’s undesirable actions towards others” someone echoed, “laws keep the powerful refrained from suppressing the inferior.” Mr. Briggs then asked for more and I replied, “so that we could build justice and peace in the society.” “This is what I wanted to listen” he liked my suggestion nodding his head appreciatively. He further added, “Just tell me one thing, did I do something wrong by expelling the Clark? “What do you say?” Genuinely, we all did not adore it and expressed the same that he did absolutely inappropriate to Clark. “Alright, I did the wrong, I tyrannized an innocent but why did you all remain silent despite knowing it wrong? Do you think justice can be done with such an attitude? Do you all think laws without an insight and a desire to implement can work?” He asked in emotionally charged way. A spell of awkward silence took over us. We could not speak anything. He taught us the most significant lesson of life, “Laws are just phrases without the power of implementation.”

He not only centralized his attention to teach particular subject skills but also taught us how to speak up against injustice and unethical happenings. Without any desire to implement, law is just like a sword without sharpness; the most useless thing we can assume. I learned that education is not about merely knowing something but it determines how well we implement our learning to do something productive. We are good creators with poor implementation ability. Educating ourselves means developing an ability to speak and stand against injustice and whenever we feel like something inappropriate has happened (Hazard and Geoffrey 2004).

These lessons helped me a lot shaping my personality. I was pro-social but lacked will power standing against the despotic creatures and make explicit decisions to undo the profligate. I had an avoidant personality; I felt immensely comfortable neglecting the wrong and felt reluctant to confront abominable events and judgment. I thought people would call me wrong and make undesirable remarks about me or I would have to face obnoxious consequences from the ones who have the authority but this event helped me changing my personality from avoidant to open. I developed openness to experience no matter what the consequences are. I learned to affirm the right even if I was left all alone. This is what I learned and it was indeed the best lesson of my life; thanks to Mr. Briggs.

Works Cited

Hazard, Geoffrey C. Angelo, Dondi, (2004). Legal Ethics. Stanford University Press